My Spring Break came a week after the University of Kentucky's. On Saturday I returned from a 6 day trip to the island of Okinawa. For the first 3 days we stayed in a beach front resort and finished the trip staying in a hostel near the main city of Naha. Unfortunately the trip to the resort took us a total of 10 hour travel time. We flew out of the Kobe airport into Naha and then were forced to take two buses and a taxi from the south of the island up to the north. Needless to say it was quite an uncomfortable journey trying to keep track of all 15 people and their luggage, while navigating an unknown place. When we finally made it to the resort we were greeted by lovely ocean views and warm weather. Since it is still technically off season for the beach we shared the resort with very few other guests. During the days at the resort I mainly found myself relaxing and trying to recover from the past two months of school work. The resort was quite far from any sort of large civilization but it was nice to be removed from city life. Okinawa is home to the second largest aquarium in the world, and several members of our group decided to visit. I however opted to stay behind and relax. After our three nights were up at the resort we hopped in taxis and headed to Naha. Since Okinawa has a lot of American military bases, it also has a lot of American influence on food and culture. This of course meant that we were able to enjoy endless amounts of taco rice. During our stay in Naha we spent a lot of time shopping up and down the famous Kokusai Street. We also got to take advantage of the well designed monorail system and visit Shurijo. Shurijo is a lovely red castle not far removed from the heart of the city. On one of our last days in the city we decided to go and visit the main American Air Force base in Kadena. When we got to the exchange we were greeted by prices in USD, American fastfood chains, and nothing but Americans as far as the eye could see. After living in Japan for two months now, I found myself experiencing slight culture shock, adjusting back to American life if only for a few hours. Now I am back home in Hirakata-shi, back to the cold, and back to school. Unfortunately here we have midterms after Spring Break. Starting tomorrow I will be greeted by a full week of tests after tests.